The glory of summer on the Newport Coast was celebrated recently at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club as over 200 guests converged for the annual "White Party." Benefiting the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation (founded in 1997), the annual summer tradition raised $43,000 net, which will be used to fund local Newport-Mesa high school sailing teams. Also receiving support will be the sailing teams from Sage Hill School and Mater Dei High School. Event chairs Leslie and Dennis Shannon advised that the financial assistance helps the sailors with traveling expenses, which can be costly given the fact that regattas and races take place worldwide. Presently, sailors are preparing for competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. More than 100 local sailors are assisted through the foundation's programs.

Committee members deserving kudos for their volunteer efforts include Kirsten Potter, Cari Peets, Molly Calder, Leslie Mais and Lisa Briggs. Foundation president Warren Person joined Newport Harbor Yacht Club Commodore Paul Marshall and his wife Kelly in the crowd dressed in white along with locals Barbara and Alex Bowie, Shelly and David Clark, Michelle and Tom Dallape, Alison and Ryan Eastman, Francine and Steve Horton, Hubie and Linda Laugharn, Joan Riach Gaynor, Carol and Jim Sever, Nikki and Travis Winsor and Sarah Veitch with Jefferson Hall.

One of Newport's chic style houses, known as the Hampton Salon, run by hair stylist to the local stars Condren Hampton, is inviting the community to help a friend in need. Paul Anthony Salazar, a stylist who has worked with Hampton and a wide client list in the Newport-Mesa family for nearly 25 years, has been seriously ill with pancreatitis and has been hospitalized for some 10 weeks in intensive care.

To help Paul and his family meet the astronomical expenses, Hampton and his staff have organized an all-day cut-a-thon set for Aug. 4, joining with some eight other Newport salons and all of their stylists volunteering their time and talent cutting and styling customers' hair to raise money for Salazar. To make an appointment, call the Hampton Salon and ask for manager Christine at (949) 864-6100.

It has just been confirmed that the iconic local band with an international following Sugar Ray will perform at the 25th-anniversary fundraising dinner benefiting Costa Mesa-based Serving People In Need (SPIN). The black-tie gala, which will take place Nov. 1 at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa, will star Sugar Ray, fronted by Newport Beach native Mark McGrath, in a performance that is certain to sell out. Funds raised will support the vitally important housing programs offered to those in need in the Orange County community by SPIN volunteers. Recently, McGrath's lifelong childhood pal McG, who has become an enormously successful director of major motion pictures and television programs, probably most recognized for the small-screen series "The O.C." and currently working on the TV series "Supernatural," also lent his famous face and formidable support to SPIN, fronting a 25th-anniversary video explaining the work of the organization and specifically how its programs save the lives of both individuals and families in need of housing and other support services created to enable folks to turn their lives around and become productive members of the Orange County community.

Jean Wegener, longtime executive director of SPIN and major community advocate, also reports that the 25th-anniversary gala proudly welcomes one of America's most famous chefs, Charlie Palmer, who will work with the team at the Hyatt Regency lead by Chef Manfred Lassahn, creating a spectacular dinner event themed around "an evening in Palmer's precious Sonoma Wine Country." Invitations will be out shortly, with individual tickets priced at $250. Sponsorship opportunities are available. SPIN is seeking major underwriting donors to meet rental housing expenses topping $500,000 this year. For more information and to reserve space for this special event, please call Kim Frazier at SPIN at (714) 751-1101.

THE CROWD runs Fridays. B.W. Cook is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.